Why is health and safety important in the workplace? Here are a few great reasons. Click on each one to learn more.
- Health and Safety Makes a Workplace More Successful
- Health and Safety is Heavily Regulated
- Health and Safety Costs: Preventative or Reactionary
- Health and Safety Protects Your Team
If you are looking for effective health and safety training, contact us.
Why Is Health and Safety Important in the Workplace? Read on to find out – Image by LEEROY Agency from Pixabay
Why Is Health and Safety Important in the Workplace?
Why is health and safety important in the workplace? At the end of the day, there are four important reasons why organizations should care about health and safety:
- It will make your workplace more successful
- It is regulated
- If you ignore it, it will cost you time and resources
- It protects your team
In Canada, specifically Ontario, this is crucial to protect your team. This means serving customers well because when companies take care of their team they take care of their customers. A safer working environment requires everyone to be on board. Protect yourself, your workers, and your reputation.
1. Health and Safety Makes a Workplace More Successful
Protecting people, through health and safety is a way that companies can safeguard their vision and mandate, while retaining their employees. Following proper health and safety procedures will help to make your workplace more successful.
A great workplace is one where all employees:
- Achieve organizational objectives
- Give their personal best
- Work together as a team/ family in an environment of trust
- Create a “one culture”
A one culture is one where organizations take in talented people, combine their identities, and assimilate them into their organization’s way of life. A successful workplace includes fulfilling a mandate and vision, while retaining great employees in a safe environment.
Following health and safety practices can make your workplace more successful – Image by Hands off my tags! Michael Gaida from Pixabay
2. Health and Safety is Heavily Regulated
Why is health and safety important in the workplace? In Canada, specifically Ontario, Health and Safety is heavily regulated. Under the OHSA, employers are required to post a copy of The Health & Safety at Work: “Prevention Starts Here” poster in the workplace.
Required Documents:
There are also other required documents that must be posted in every workplace. Click here to see the list on the Ontario Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development’s website. You can also check out your health and safety awareness by taking this quick quiz here.
The Green Book:
In addition, employers in Ontario are required to have a copy of The Green Book. The Green Book contains laws and regulations for occupations from teachers to farmers to healthcare workers to construction workers. Employers are obligated to post a copy of the Green Book in their workplace and must keep track of revision dates and ensure they have the latest version available. If you are an employer, read what you should know about the 2017 OHSA Green Book here.
The Green Book contains laws and regulations for many occupations including teachers, farmers, healthcare, and construction workers -Image by analogicus from Pixabay
Employer Responsibilities:
Under the OHSA (Occupational Health and Safety Act), employer duties include:
- “Taking all reasonable precautions to protect the health and safety of workers;
- Ensuring that equipment, materials and protective equipment are maintained in good condition;
- Providing information, instruction, and supervision to protect worker health and safety”
Employee Responsibilities:
However, employees have duties under the OHSA too. Duties such as reporting any hazards to supervisors and wearing proper protective equipment are just some of the employee responsibilities outlined by the OHSA.
Ensuring workers are ready to learn, want to actively participate in safety training, and are willing to perform their duties under the OHSA will help make any workplace a safer place to be!
Learn a great safety lesson from this ignored bucket
3. Health and Safety Costs: Preventative or Reactionary
In 2015, the Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development gave out over $5.7M in fines to companies for failing to provide safety instruction and training, resulting in workplace injuries.
Some of the top reasons for these fines included:
- Unsafe work procedures
- Lack of proper training
- Lack of hazard control such as not addressing slippery walkways
- Failure to utilize machinery hazard guarding such as not properly securing table saws
- Failure to take precautions such as having too few workers to safely conduct work
Click here to see how ACUTE helps staff work effectively and safely by empowering workers and supervisors to be champions of health and safety awareness and excellence.
Infographic: How to Prevent Trips, Slips, and Falls in the Workplace
Learn ways to prevent trips, slips, and falls in your workplace
The Impact of Falling Accidents
In many industries, like construction and mining, safety isn’t always considered as important as it should be, due to the high turn over and misconceptions. Unfortunately, fall accidents, injuries, and deaths continue to happen in the workplace every year. In Canada, over 40,000 workers are injured due to fall accidents each year. In 2013, 10 workers died from fall accidents in Ontario.
With greater emphasis on training and safety practices today, why do fall accidents still occur at such a high rate? Accidents still occur because:
- Poor working conditions still exist (such as poor lighting or slippery surfaces)
- Workers or supervisors fail to set up proper protective equipment (such as guardrails)
- Equipment (such as ladders) may be old, unstable, or used improperly
- Fall protection equipment is forgotten, not used, or used incorrectly
- Lack of training and poor overall workplace safety practices
Prevent falling accidents with proper training
4. Health and Safety Protects Your Team
Workplace health and safety procedures are necessary for the well-being of both employers and employees.
Here are 10 ways health and safety protects the team:
- Instilling safety programs can help to create a more productive work environment
- Absenteeism is proven to drop when effective safety programs are introduced
- Safe work environments tend to make your employees feel happier
- Your work premises are kept to higher standards which is a good overall thing
- Your employee insurance claims will decrease, saving your money
- Your employees will be better protected
- It will help you with customer retention
- You will benefit from an environment of continuous improvement
- It will greatly enhance your brand value
- It will help to reduce unnecessary business costs and disruption
Why Is Health and Safety Important in the Workplace? It will protect your team
Stay Safe at Work With ACUTE!
Hands-on, practical training is the best way to keep employers and workers safe in the workplace! ACUTE is dedicated to workplace safety and understands the importance of course and training provider approval. Why get workplace safety training with ACUTE? Here are just some of the benefits of working with ACUTE.
- Open Door Instructor-Student Partnership – ACUTE’s training services emphasize client participation. Staff foster relationships with clients and serve as a touchstone for advice anytime moving forward.
- Serving Your Team and Industry – With a vast array of clients in manufacturing, construction, health, academic, and government sectors, ACUTE brings the best safety practices from across the spectrum to your workplace.
- 100 Years Combined Experience – ACUTE provides comprehensive health and safety training, on-site safety services, and consulting services. With over 100 years of combined experience, our company staff offer more than theoretical or abstract ideas. ACUTE offers solutions.
- Track Record of Success – ACUTE is rated 4.9/5 stars on Google reviews, demonstrating a commitment to our clients, quality, and passion for training.
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